Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in Southgate

FOOD was okay, the crab leg clusters came with very little meat on the inside I understand you can’t know how , same with the lobster tail, it seemed very small for a $100 bill total. We ordered the largest seafood boil option with 2x the shrim (head off) just beware when you order the head off they still come shelled and they charge you 2 x ($4) fee for a total of $8 for the extra service which seemed expensive to me. Anyways we added on broccoli ($4) x2 eggs ($4) and sausage ($7). It comes with x2 potato’s and x2 corn (it’s really 1 piece of corn cut into 2 parts). The butter seemed overly seasoned with garlic. And I’m one to love a heavy hand on my seasoning but it was excessive. They give you LOTS of butter (which is great).

SERVICE WAS TERRIBLE. I’m completely understanding to understaffed restaurants and things taking more time during these situations BUT, being greeted by our waitress to get our drink order and food order took 20+ minutes. the water and soda took an additional 15-20 minutes. I then after 40 minutes of waiting ordered a Long Island that didn’t come for another 30 minutes….. when we were served our seafood boil our waitress said she was going to go get us a bucket (nessecary for the peelings of the shrimp ect) after being asked 2 times the waitress finally brought us the be 20-25 minutes into our meal… at this point I was extremely frustrated and fed up with the poor service. Although the waitress was extremely apologetic and very polite. There’s no excuse for the complete lack of timely service necessary to enjoy our hundred dollar meal…. It’s extremely disappointing when you go out and decided to spend money and splurge on something only for such poor service…. At the very end when trying to pay for our food we tried giving her the card after waiting another 10-15 minutes with our crying toddler for her to say she would be right back with a bag for our leftovers and she could bring the card machine straight to us… not to our surprise she came back with only a bag and said “I’m sorry you’re gonna have to wait I have to go serve my other tables that have been waiting”. This led to us, just leaving cash. I don’t think I will ever come back. I will say because I waited for my Long Island for such an excessive amount of time because the bartender was on break (after watching her come back and sit on her phone in front of us for 5 minutes) we were given 50% off a very small Long Island that they charge $12 for usually. I wasn’t impressed at all…. And I wouldn’t recommend...

Decided to try something new I noticed the parking lot is always full and had to check it out for myself and was in the mood for seafood. I walked in and rather enjoyed the Asian inspired modern look and feel. Concrete floors lots of black iron shelves but it still felt warm and inviting.

The Menu. Was surprised to see that its sort of a fusion of two restaurants, They have a ramen thing going on and also the hook and reel menu. I was there for seafood but may try the ramen next time. Was surprised to see that there really wasn't a whole lot of choices of food. They had a decent amount of appetizers, and a tiny fried section on the bottom right of the menu. But Basically your choice was different variations of a crab/shrimp boil. That's about it. And like 4 dishes that weren't a creole style seafood boil including a spicy shrimp scampi dish. But its obvious by the 90% of the menu being taken up by the boil meals, that should be the first thing to try at this restaurant.

The meal. Presentation was a bit odd, but that's coming from someone who's never been to a restaurant that specializes in seafood boils before so maybe its pretty normal. We get our food delivered to us on a silver platter, but its in a big inflated plastic bag. So we have to lift this bag, Untie it and dump the food onto our plate, which just felt really strange to do.

The food was excellent, I ordered the hook and reel sauce at the medium spice and it was perfect. It was hot, but not hot enough to make me sniffle or put tears in my eyes. The crab was delicious and the shrimp was amazing. Corn on the Cobb and the potatoes were also a nice touch. It took a minute to not feel so weird wearing gloves going out to eat for dinner but i quickly looked past it because the food was so yummy.

All In all I will most likely visit this restaurant again, I feel like the ramen thing is a bit weird and makes the restaurant feel like its having an identity crisis. I'd prefer the food be presented a bit better, I don't want to dump my food out of a bathroom trash bag onto my plate it just feels wrong. However once you get past that hurdle the food is really really good.

Service was a bit slow, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt cause it was getting pretty late when we were eating. Took a good 20 minutes after we were finished eating to see the waitress to pay our bill.

Check it out and don't be afraid to try something different its worth a...

I took my 14 year old son here last night for the first time. We were both excited for the all you can eat. It is 45 bucks but I thought great deal right? WRONG!!! Waitress greets us at the table and says it is her first day and that is ok cause it was our first time too. Food comes out and we start eating we are told we can have as many as 9 refills we were stoked! We could not finish the first one though. No biggy our eyes were bigger than our stomach. We did not get silverware and I had noodles and no crab cracker til we were done with the crab. Still ok cause it was a new waitress. She did not come back till the end and never a pop refill. I ask for a box and she says it's 15 dollars a lb to take home. I said really I'm paying 45 each she says "it's in the rules" I asked what rules? She says oh Noone told you the rules? I seriously thougtshe was being fun and playing like a kid but nope she was serious. I said well we can leave it here then she said oh you have to pay a waste fee. I said waste fee what is that again says, "it's in the rules." I could not believe this was real she says it has got violent in there due to these rules. So at the bottom of the menu is says there us a waste fee. My fault for not reading the fine print but also says. For parties 6 or more there is a 18%gratuity. Fair too I feel. So I tell her my bill has the gratuity and I did plan to leave a good tip because was new anyway and again she says oh with all you can eat "it's in the rules" I said but there are only 2 of us. Would you believe someone else come out to look at our plates and says how is 7.50 for the waste fee? I said it's horrible still. 130 dollars after the 18% for 2 of us. Seriously a waste fee. She offers us a 10% off next time and I said it's fine there won't be a next time. Should have went to red lobster. Waitress was new but I feel like did not read "the rules herself" I was calm the entire time but they could tell I was annoyed. Anyway I would never recommend hook and reel to anyone after...